Sept. 25, 2000
Gere Signs Up For "Mothman Prophecies"
Richard Gere is set to star in The Mothman Prophecies, a film which focuses on a reporter drawn to a small town to investigate a series of bizarre events. Based on a true story written by John A. Keel, this next vehicle for Gere will be directed by Mark Pellington of Arlington Road fame. The production will begin shooting in January.
Kathryn Bigelow to Direct "K-19"
The next film to confuse us with a mix of letters and numbers in the title is K-19, yet another submarine drama soon to hit the big screen.
Director Kathryn Bigelow ( Strange Days, Blue Steel, and the upcoming The Weight of Water ) told the New York Times that K-19 has been in development for over four years.Based on a true story, the film is about two Russian submarine captains during the Cold War, whose nuclear submarine suffers a meltdown off the coast of Norway. Production on the film gets underway in March.
Fifth Batman Film Underway
After months of endless gossip, director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem For A Dream ) has been given the go ahead to direct the upcoming Batman 5 according to Variety. The new film will be based on the comic series Batman: Year One.
Critically hailed writer-artist Frank Miller from the Batman: Year One mini-series is set to assist Aronofsky with the crafting of the script. Miller earned considerable fame from his creation of the cult graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in 1986. He claims a sequel for that project is still in the works.
Damon Swings Too Hard
Actor Matt Damon took a crack at the game of golf recently and injured his ribs instead. Damon was honing his game for his upcoming film The Legend of Bagger Vance. According to an interview he did with Maximum Golf magazine, Damon explained that he swung his club too hard and landed himself in the doctor's office. It seems the young actor ( known for such films as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Good Will Hunting ) was more familiar with hitting a baseball.
Tim Moss, the film's technical director, said Damon was never obligated to learn the sport for the film. Damon's response was that he wanted to learn how to play golf well enough to beat his dad.
Sept. 18, 2000
Harrison Ford Makes Hefty Contribution To SAG
Harrison Ford decided to lend his support to striking actors this past weekend with a hefty contribution. After fellow actor Kevin Spacey donated a $100,000 last week to the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists, Ford matched Spacey's donation for the cause.
The Screen Actors Guild originated the relief fund, and claims that in addition to Spacey and Ford, Jay Leno, George Clooney, Britney Spears and ‘N Sync have all promised their financial support.
No Shortage of Projects For Douglas
Michael Douglas and director Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls) agreed Friday to start production late November on the new thriller Don't Say a Word, a film that has been in development for over five years. Based on the novel by Andrew Klaven, the story focuses on an East Coast psychiatrist whose daughter is kidnapped.
Douglas' last project was Paramount's Wonder Boys earlier this year, and will next be seen opposite real-life significant other Catherine Zeta-Jonesin USA Films' Traffic.
Director's Guild Demands A Better Rating System
More upheaval in Hollywood comes on the heels of a congressional hearing centered around a report the Federal Trade Commission recently released. The FTC is accusing the entertainment industry of intentionally marketing violence to children. The Director's Guild of America is petitioning Hollywood's chief Washington lobbyist, Motion Picture Association of America chief Jack Valenti, to restructure the movie ratings system.
The directors union is a fairly new 25-member Task Force on Violence & Social Responsibility. Members include filmmakers Rob Reiner, Michael Bay, Sydney Pollack, Michael Mann and Gary Ross. The MPAA is being asked to come up with a simpler, cleaner, and more detailed rating system that would be used not just for movies, but for all media.
Sept. 11, 2000
Watcher Makes A Killing
This weekend offered films from the darker side of Hollywood, as The Watcher, a thriller about a serial killer, beat out the competition at the weekend box office. Still the revenue from the Keanu Reeves-James Spader flick wasn't enough to keep movie revenue from dropping behind last year's record pace. The Watcher grossed $9.1 million Friday through Sunday, according to box office estimates Sunday.
The competition included the black comedy Nurse Betty with Morgan Freeman and Renee Zellweger. The film did well with a $7.3 million gross,with the weekend's top per-screen average for films in wide distribution, averaging $5,003 on 1,459 screens.
Surprisingly, the re-issue of the rock satire This Is Spinal Tap was the top grossing film in revenue per screen, averaging $5,400 in only 10 theaters.
Ninth Life Is Up For CATS
CATS, the longest-running Broadway show in history, became a memory on Sunday evening after an amazing run of 7,484 performances.
The final curtain for the first of the big megamusicals ended its run Monday at the Winter Garden Theater after making over $400 million in sales during the past 18 years. The Broadway production has been enjoyed by over 10 million people.
Among the invited guests for the final performance was former cast members such as Betty Buckley, who won a Tony as the original Grizabella.
Prinze Gets A New Pad
He must be a movie star now, considering the recent purchase Freddie Prinze Jr. made this week. The handsome boyfriend of Buffy the Vampire Slayer now owns a $3 million home.
The 24 year old bought a five-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot house in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, according to the Los Angeles Times. The one-story home was built in the 1930s, and has a guest house and a pool.
The gossip hasn't stopped since Prinze began dating Sarah Michelle Gellar, better known as TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His latest successes include Boys and Girls and Down to You, released earlier this year, and has another project due out, the upcoming comedy-romance Head Over Heels.
Andrews Settles Voice Suit
Hollywood musical legend Julie Andrews announced recently she has finally reached a settlement with the surgeons she accused of screwing up a throat operation that thrashed her vocal cords.
Although the specifics of the case were not disclosed, Andrews said at a recent press conference she was "glad to have settled this case in a favorable manner" and was "glad to close this chapter on an event which was unfortunate for all concerned."
Andrews had the surgery three years ago to remove noncancerous throat nodules, which had forced her to cut short her Broadway run in Victor/Victoria. Originally, the hope was that the surgery would quickly get her back onstage, but afterward, doctors told her there was only a fifty-fifty chance she would ever sing again. The suit was filed in a U.S. District Court in New York last year, and named New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital and Drs. Scott Kessler and Jeffrey Libin as the defendants.
The Sound of Music star has since began writing children's books and recently signed on to star in Disney's Princess Diaries (a non-singing part). She's also slated to host the PBS special Leading Ladies of Broadway, which is set to air in December
Sept. 4, 2000
Hopper Back On The Bike
Actor-director Dennis Hopper, well known for his performance as a biker in the cult classic Easy Rider, will be riding the road again. Hopper is planning to make a motorcycle run from St. Petersburg Russia to a medieval village some 2 1/2 hours away. Over 30 fellow motorcycle enthusiasts will join Hopper for a ride that will formalize the signing of a museum collaberation deal between the Guggenheim motorcycle gang and the Hermitage Museum. The work from the Russian museum will be shown in a Guggenheim-Hermitage space to open at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.
Hopper is a founding vice president of the Guggenheim motorcycle gang, a group that blossomed out of the popular roadster exhibition that played at both the New York and Bilbao Guggenheim museums. Other riders include
Laurence Fishburne, Lauren Hutton and Guggenheim Bilbao architect Frank Gehry.
Schwimmer Remembers His Roots
David Schwimmer has announced a challenge grant of ``maybe around $250,000'' to fund a new home for the theater company he helped establish over ten years ago. The Friends star called the Lookingglass Theater ``my home, my family, my brothers and sisters'' at a news conference last week.
The 19-member company was founded in 1988 by Northwestern University graduates and is considered one of Chicago's prime small-theater companies. The theatre's new home will be in the landmark Water Tower and Pumping Station on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. The city and state each will add $1.5 million to the $6.5 million renovation, leaving the Lookingglass to fund-raise for the rest of the money. Construction is set to start later this year, with the grand opening planned for 2002.
Smoochy DeVito
Danny DeVito will direct the Warner Bros. comedy Death to Smoochy, set for a fall release next year. Smoochy is a big, blue rhinoceros Barney-type character who is targeted for assassination. DeVito is expected to be in the film but will not play Smoochy, as previously reported.
DeVito last directing job was Matilda in 1996, but is known best for such directorial successes as Hoffa, The War of the Roses and Throw Momma from the Train. DeVito has been keeping busy recently,he just finished a starring role in MGM's What's the Worst That Could Happen? opposite Martin Lawrence and just finished up with Franchise Pictures' The Heist for writer-director David Mamet.
Jewison Agrees To Make "Dinner"
Director Norman Jewison has agreed to helm Dinner With Friends for HBO Films. Jewison, whose most recent film, The Hurricane received an Oscar nomination for its star Denzel Washington, is expected to begin production this fall on the HBO project. The film will explore the typical day-to-day stress of modern-day marriages, looking at how two couples are effected while one of them is falling apart.
Jewison's directing career spans fifty years and includes Oscar nominations for The Fiddler on the Roof,
In the Heat of the Night, The Russians are Coming and Moonstruck. Last year, he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Memorial Oscar for his contributions to the motion picture industry.
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